I haven't had time to visit the law library today, but I will get around to it soon!

If these boys were 15 and 16, I don't think that they would have been covered under the Jr. Reserves law (covered only 17 year olds)...in fact, they would have been ineligible for Alabama State service, at all, as I understand it...but unusual things did happen during the war. A volunteer of age 15 or 16 should not have been accepted into service, by law...again, this is just from memory and I'll try to find the exact laws.

The Militia was a different animal altogether from the Reserves, but neither was the Militia the same as the Home Guard. And, of course, the Alabama Volunteer Corps was different from any of the above. Use the search feature on this site, and I think that you'll find some rather indepth discussion on the [confusing] nature of these units in Alabama.